ORBIT USB Noise Generator

Cheap alternative to ESG. Custom made hardware.

The USB Noise Generator shown in figure 1 is primarily used as a controllable noise source, an important parameter in defining signal-to-noise ratios used for creation of different RF topologies in the ORBIT grid. Upwards of 100 of these generators will be deployed among ORBIT’s 400 nodes supplementing primary interference injection grid.

The generator consists of two PCBs: BaBo (Baseband Board) and WiBo (Wireless Board). BaBo performs overall control functions, baseband I/Q data generation and acquistion, data processing and transmission to upstream data servers through a USB interface. WiBo is a radio transceiver board providing half duplex (one-at-a-time receive-only or transmit-only) upconversion/downconversion in one of three frequency bands, namely 4900-5300 MHz, 5400-5875 MHz or 2400-2500 MHz corresponding to the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g world-wide standards, respectively.

Software for the generator consists of: Linux driver, Microcontroler firmware and Xilinx configuration file.